For some time now, there have been intense arguments about abortion and whether a pregnant woman should have the right to terminate her pregnancy simply because she is not ready for the responsibility that comes with having a child.
Those who support abortion rights often argue that a woman should have control over her own body. After all, pregnancy affects her physically, emotionally, financially and socially. She is the one who carries the baby for nine months.
She is the one who goes through childbirth. In many cases, she is also the one who will bear much of the responsibility of raising the child.
From that perspective, some people ask: If she is the one who must carry the pregnancy, shouldn’t she be the one to decide whether it continues? This is an important question, and it deserves serious consideration rather than dismissal.
But Christians believe another question must also be asked: What about the other life involved? A pregnancy involves a mother, but it also involves a developing child.
And this is where the Christian understanding of human life begins to challenge the idea that abortion is simply a matter of personal choice.
If the unborn child is already a human life, then the situation is no longer simply about one person’s body. It becomes a question of what we owe another human being who is completely dependent upon us.
The unborn child cannot speak, protest, or make an argument for his or her own existence and is completely vulnerable, and perhaps that is precisely why the question becomes so important.
Does our responsibility to protect human life become greater when that life is incapable of protecting itself?
What Does Christianity Say About the Sanctity of Life?
Christianity begins with the belief that human life is not an accident. The Bible presents God as the giver and author of life.
In Genesis, humanity is described as being created in the image and likeness of God. This gives human beings a unique dignity that does not depend on wealth, intelligence, physical strength, age or social status.
A person does not become valuable because of what they can accomplish but because they are God’s creation.
This principle is important when we discuss the unborn. Psalm 139 contains one of the Bible’s most beautiful descriptions of life in the womb: “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.”
The psalmist does not describe the womb as a place where God is absent. Instead, he describes God as intimately involved with the formation of the human being within it.
Jeremiah 1:5 goes even further: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.” For the Christian, these passages provide a profound perspective.
The child in the womb is not invisible to God but part of God’s creation and therefore possesses dignity and worth.
This is why the Christian opposition to abortion is rooted not simply in politics or personal preference, but in a theological understanding of the value of human life.
A Doctor Who Sees the Unborn as a Patient
This is where the story of Dr William Lile becomes particularly interesting. Dr Lile, an obstetrician and outspoken pro-life advocate, has spent much of his career dealing with pregnancy and unborn children.
One of the powerful ideas associated with his work is the statement: “A patient is a person, no matter how small.”
Think about that statement. When a pregnant woman goes to the hospital for an ultrasound, the doctor may examine the developing baby, measure the baby’s growth, monitor the heartbeat and look for abnormalities.
If something is wrong, doctors may sometimes intervene to try to save the baby’s life. In other words, medical science increasingly recognises that the unborn child can be a patient.
And this changes the way we think about the child in the womb. The unborn baby is not merely an idea.
The baby is not merely a future possibility. The baby is a developing human being whose health can be examined, whose problems can sometimes be treated and whose life can sometimes be saved before birth.</p>
This does not settle every ethical question surrounding abortion, but it does force us to think carefully about what exactly is happening inside the womb.
When Medicine Goes Into the Womb to Save a Life
Perhaps one of the most remarkable developments in modern medicine is fetal surgery.
There are medical conditions that can be detected before birth, and in certain circumstances, doctors can perform procedures while the baby is still in the womb.
The purpose is not to harm the baby but to help the baby.
In some cases, surgeons temporarily access the womb, perform a procedure on the fetus and then allow the pregnancy to continue.
Eventually, the baby is delivered. Imagine the significance of that. A doctor looks at an unborn child and says, in effect: “There is something wrong, and we are going to try to save this baby’s life.”
That is a remarkable development in medicine, and it raises a profound philosophical question.
If we can recognise that an unborn child can be sick, can receive medical treatment and can have his or her life deliberately protected, then perhaps we should also think carefully about how we describe that same child.
The language we use matters because sometimes changing the language we use about something can change how we treat it.
Perhaps the greatest question surrounding abortion is not merely: “Does a woman have a choice?”
The deeper question is: “What should we do when our choices affect another human life?”
Christianity teaches us that freedom comes with responsibility. We are free to make choices, but our choices can affect other people.
A mother has a profound responsibility toward the child growing within her, and society has a responsibility toward both of them.
The Bible tells us that God knows us even before birth. Psalm 139 reminds us that we are wonderfully made and that God’s eyes are not absent from the womb.
Every child begins life in a place where they are completely dependent on another person. And perhaps that is one of the reasons the unborn child presents such a profound moral challenge to humanity.
The Christian call is therefore not simply to condemn abortion. It is to protect life, support mothers, help families and extend compassion to those facing difficult circumstances.
Because Christianity teaches us that life is precious.
And when we encounter someone small, helpless and unable to speak for themselves, perhaps that is when our commitment to the sanctity of life should become strongest.
The question we must ultimately answer is not just whether we have the power to end a life. It is what we will do with the responsibility God has given us to protect it.
If every human life is created by God and bears His image. Then the smallest and most vulnerable among us do not also deserve our protection?
